Image Trace

The workflow

1. Select an image. Use the Object menu's Vectorize Image, the image tools inspector, a canvas or Layers context menu, the command palette, or the QuickBar. These entry points open the same Vectorize workflow.
2. Choose the intent. Start with a preset, then choose monochrome, grayscale, colour, or pixel-art. Choose silhouette for filled regions, or centerline for editable strokes on the desktop app.
3. Prepare the source. Open Source preparation for reversible grayscale, contrast, brightness, invert, denoise, fixed threshold, adaptive threshold, alpha cutoff, and border-connected white-background removal.
4. Inspect the preview. Source, Prepared, Overlay, and Vector views use the same trace result. Use Anchors and the Fit/1:1 control to inspect holes, thin gaps, corners, and handles.
5. Apply and edit. Apply re-runs the recipe at the bounded final resolution and inserts ordinary editable paths beside the source in one undoable operation. Use the node editor to refine the result.

Choose a tracing intent

Source preparation

Preparation never mutates the imported asset. Begin with the smallest change that solves the problem: use adaptive threshold for uneven scans, denoise for isolated paper noise, and adjust contrast or brightness only after checking the Prepared view.

• Remove white background connected to the image edge removes only near-white pixels that are connected to the border. Enclosed white counters and white artwork survive.
• Alpha cutoff controls which partially transparent pixels participate.
• Fixed threshold uses the trace threshold. Adaptive threshold uses a local Bradley–Roth mean for uneven lighting and paper.
• Pixel-art disables smoothing and background removal by default so the exact-colour/grid promise is not silently changed.

Structure, holes, and seams

Monochrome output uses compound paths for counters and holes. Colour and grayscale output can use either structure control:

• Cutout keeps regions as abutting compound paths with even-odd holes. It is economical, but independently simplified shared edges can reveal hairline seams at high simplification.
• Stacked paints regions back-to-front. Later regions cover earlier ones, which is usually safer for touching colour regions and transparency-dependent artwork.

A missing hole, omitted component, or path-budget reduction is reported as a diagnostic; it is not silently presented as exact recovery. Raise the maximum path count or lower the minimum region area when a small mark matters, then inspect the complexity estimate before applying.

Preview, resolution, and diagnostics

Preview processing is bounded to a long edge of 1024 pixels. Apply can use up to 4096 pixels, subject to memory and safety limits. The dialog reports the effective trace and source dimensions, so a capped run is not described as full source resolution. Matching a tolerance value cannot restore detail that was lost through downsampling.

The Vector view reports paths, points, holes, omitted holes, complexity, provider, and processing progress. The artwork colour is independent of the light, dark, or high contrast UI theme. Fit and 1:1 are buttons, so comparison does not depend on a drag-only interaction.

Apply, re-trace, and preserve edits

The source remains available for comparison and the inserted result is a normal editable group of paths. Apply creates one meaningful undo step. Preview updates do not write authored geometry. Edit Trace restores the saved preparation, tracing options, effective provider, resolution, and source identity information.

If the source reference changes, Varve warns before a re-trace. A re-trace replaces the generated group in place only after the new result succeeds; a failed or cancelled request leaves the last valid result intact. Manual divergence should be treated as authored work: duplicate or detach the result before applying a recipe that should no longer replace it.

Related reading

See the Image Trace feature overview andVector Tools guide. For comparison, Adobe'sImage Trace optionsand Inkscape's tracing guideare useful references, not promises about Varve's implementation.